Talk of Hollywood ... Neil Strauss, writer of The Game, giving a seminar. Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian

MGM has picked up the rights to film Neil Strauss's best-selling book, The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, according to Slashfilm.

The studio has employed David Levien and Brian Koppleman, writers of Rounders and The Girlfriend Experience, to write and direct an adaptation of Strauss's infamous book, which is part exposé, part seduction manual.

The book explains the pick-up techniques of a group of men who call themselves the "seduction community". Strauss explains how members use techniques like "negging" ("to momentarily lower a woman's self-esteem and to suggest an intriguing disinterest") to attract women. Strauss spent a number of months with the community and be-friended key members (who went by pseudonyms such as "Mystery" and "Rasputin") and first wrote about his experiences in an article for the New York Times.

The film will likely take on the dense lexicon of the group, which the community's AFCs (Average Frustrated Chumps) used to hide their intentions from the HBs (Hot Babes) they were trying to seduce.

American Pie director Chris Weitz, who was originally mooted to direct, will now produce the film alongside his brother, writer and director Paul Weitz.